Since this is a specifically Buddhist forum and you have said yourself that you are not a Buddhist, I respectfully request you take it somewhere else.

Good luck and best wishes.

I never said I wasn't Buddhist, only that my main practice isn't a form of Buddhist meditation. I don't think you have to pursue Buddhist meditation to call yourself a Buddhist, anymore than you have to do communion or be baptized to call yourself a Christian.

Since this is a specifically Buddhist forum and you have said yourself that you are not a Buddhist, I respectfully request you take it somewhere else.

The Buddha wasn't a Buddhist either.

This is a Buddhist forum, and it seems to me that thoese invested on the Bodhisattva Path might see all who come into this forum as potential kalyana mitta....or at least fellow sentient beings suffering as we all do with the samsara wheel of life.

Since this is a specifically Buddhist forum and you have said yourself that you are not a Buddhist, I respectfully request you take it somewhere else.

Good luck and best wishes.

I'm with you on this pemachophel...everyone is being very friendly and open with maynoth but in return he ignores direct questions about his religion or else replies with evasive nonsense like 'I didn't say I wasn't a Buddhist'. My growing suspicion is that he may be concealing something decidedly 'inappropriate' in respect of this forum.

Namgyal wrote:I'm with you on this pemachophel...everyone is being very friendly and open with maynoth but in return he ignores direct questions about his religion or else replies with evasive nonsense like 'I didn't say I wasn't a Buddhist'. My growing suspicion is that it may be something decidedly 'inappropriate' in respect of this forum.

Namgyal,

I my practice is private and not a topic for public discussion, my apologies if this somehow offends you.

I identify with both Buddhism, Taoism, and several other philosophies.

My practice is not something inappropriate for this forum, just not something I can not discuss in a public forum.

Since this is a specifically Buddhist forum and you have said yourself that you are not a Buddhist, I respectfully request you take it somewhere else.

Good luck and best wishes.

Sorry Bob, but this really irked me. If you really had best wishes, you wouldn't be saying such silly things. There is no need to ask someone (respectfully or otherwise) who is asking for advice (in the lounge no less) and is not causing any kind of problems at all to go elsewhere even if he is not a Buddhist. You sound like those Christians who'd help everyone, oh but only if they accept Jesus as their saviour.

Although many individuals in this age appear to be merely indulging their worldly desires, one does not have the capacity to judge them, so it is best to train in pure vision.- Shabkar

maynoth wrote:If that were possible I would. I have to make a choice one way or the other. Thank you though.

Hi Maynoth,

I think your decision to do whatever you want to do, is based on lots of tension, frustration and fear and not on wisdom.

If you are 40 or mid 40 then i assume you have lived a little and if you've paid attention to your life so far and you probably realised that things nearly always turn to be otherwise or different from how you thought they would be.

You speak of certain kind of engineer training and how you see that unfolding over the next decade or so.Do you think that is really possible?What if you have an accident or something happens to your health, or you hate your job due to various work circumstances, or family, which could prevent you from doing that training?

When you make any kind of decision is helpful to use the fragility of human existence as the only single valid point of reference.If you use this in a skilful manner then there is the chance that your decision will be informed by wisdom and you will be in a better position at seeing what are the priorities.

An example of how things can turn to be different of how they were planned is my wife who was a croupier for 13 years and when she was in her late 30's she decided she wants to change careers.It took her a few years to find out what she would really like to do and she decided on occupational therapy.She trained and in her early forties she started working as an o.t. and after a few years she realised that her chosen path is difficult , stressful and she kind of hates it.the reason she hates it is not because of the patients but because of the very low level of staff wich makes her job really insecure with a very high risk level.She mainly works with criminally insane people on locked wards.People who suffer from schizophrenia,people who killed, raped and committed atrocities.

A single detail,in this case low level of staffing , can affect your career and offset everything else which comes afterwards.Or it can affect your energy and disrupt your human condition and then you realise you've spent an entire decade on building fantasies.